from the funny-how-that-works dept

This certainly isn't the first time something like this has happened, but a news article that a tribunal ruling in Australia was set aside for relying on Wikipedia, actually gets the story wrong. The tribunal ruling wasn't based on Wikipedia, but a totally different wiki-based encyclopedia. Now, if that article with the incorrect info had been on, say, Wikipedia, as soon as this had been noticed it would have been corrected. But, instead, you have an article that's been online for quite a while and remains with incorrect info. It's just extra amusing that that incorrect info is falsely blaming Wikipedia for being unreliable, when this article proves that just because wikis are editable and news sites aren't, it doesn't mean that one is inherently more unreliable than the other.

Re:

Reliability

Even major news sources are wrong some of the time. Television news is especially poor.

One big problem I have noticed in news is that often people who write articles are not specialists in that particular field. So a news article about wikis may be written by someone who barely knows how to use a wordprocessor.

This problem coupled with the sensationalist trend news is following tends to result in some very big journalistic mistakes.

Even when facts are used they are often taken totally out of context or era.

why wiki is better

When a story hits page 1 of the newspaper with false info, the retraction (if any) is on page 8, in small print.
When a story hits TV with false info, there is virtually never any retraction.
When a story hits Wikipedia with false info, the correction appears in place, with a history of what the page used to say, and a log of the discussion surrounding the facts.

Re: two cents worth

Reference

We had a special bond issue election yesterday. The day before that, we got a flier on our door from the opposition of the bond and the reasons why. One of their points was supported by a reference to Wikipedia. I immediately decided to vote yes. (OK, that really wasn't the only reason I voted yes) At least you could go to the said Wiki page and find the reference for that and put it into your claims.

Re: Re: Re: Mysterious Comment Number

Not quite as wrong as that

Actually, the body of the article gets the source right-- the only error is in seeing something that looks and acts just like Wikipedia and assuming that it is, in fact, Wikipedia. We will probably have to live with this sort of linguistic drift, unless we want to get all anal and police our generic usages of "band-aid", "kleenex", and so forth.

Not really about wiki

The problem here was not with the fact that it was a wiki article. The problem was that the tribunal had used facts which were not relevant to the case. They made some assumptions about a statement that were wrong and got caught.

I've had numerous problems with Wikipedia editors. They don't understand linux and seem to think everything should be written for the guy on the street. They want no technical information such as on higher math or statistics based on performance measurements. It's very frustrating to have them remove data and such. I have come to the conclusion blogs are the way of the future since we don't have to put up with opinionated know nothings there...

I've had numerous problems with Wikipedia editors. They don't understand linux and seem to think everything should be written for the guy on the street. They want no technical information such as on higher math or statistics based on performance measurements. It's very frustrating to have them remove data and such. I have come to the conclusion blogs are the way of the future since we don't have to put up with opinionated know nothings there...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

A typical use of irony of fate occurs in the climax of Disneyâ€™s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Frollo, the villain, stands upon a gargoyle. He raises his sword to strike Esmeralda, and says, â€śAnd He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!â€ť At that moment, the gargoyle breaks off, sending Frollo falling to his death into the courtyard, filled with molten lead that Quasimodo had spilled to stop the oncoming guards. The irony is that Frolloâ€™s line is used in reference to Esmeralda, but instead it winds up applying to Frollo himself as he plunges into the fiery pit of molten lead.

Situations resembling poetic justice, but lacking the aspect of justice, may also be ascribed to the irony of fate.